Long time readers of CC may remember a history of the Land Rover series 1 I posted back in 2015. In it, I mentioned a trip made in 1955 from London to Singapore by a group from Oxford and Cambridge Universities, as an a example of the adventures early Land Rovers were put to, and enabled. This follows that up, and with an up to date twist.
Back in 1955, a group of recent graduates with some spare time, a certain air of confidence and a fair amount of gung-ho spirit decided to try to drive from London to Singapore. This was a drive that had never been previously completed, and certain elements, notably through Burma (now Myanmar) from India were not supported by roads, paved or otherwise. And the politics of it were as complex as you’d expect.
But still, Britain was confident back then and with some planning, the expedition, named the Oxford and Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition was off, taking the aircraft ferry from Lympe in south east England to France.
The vehicle choice was obvious in 1955 Britain – Land Rover series 1 station wagons, essentially standard specification cars with the 1997cc four cylinder petrol engine, selectable four wheel drive and twin ratio transfer box. Only larger fuel tanks and winches differentiated them from many others, along with the expedition specific camping and equipment. And the inevitable light and dark blue paint schemes.
Getting it off the ground was a challenge but once Land Rover (or Rovers as the team referred to the company) had come on board with the cars and a young TV producer had offered some cameras and film to record their journey for a travel series he was producing for the BBC’s travel unit, sponsors came forward and the trip became viable. Like the Land Rover, the young TV producer has gone on to a long career, for he was (now Sir) David Attenborough.
The route, shown in blue on the map above, went through France, Germany, Austria, Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Persia (now Iran), Pakistan, India, Burma (now Myanmar), Siam (now Thailand) and Malaya (now Malaysia), of which Singapore was then a part.
This shot shows the Oxford Land Rover crossing the River Ganges, one of many instances where it seems that the Land Rovers were among the first vehicles many people had got close to. The accounts of driving through Syria, Iraq and Persia are very revealing too – the team demonstrated the Land Rover to the Shah of Persia’s army, which promptly ordered 500 from Rovers.
After 18,000 miles, the Land Rovers arrived in Singapore on March 1956, and the team were excited to be able to read letters from home.
The Land Rovers made their way back to Solihull, after being shipped to India and supporting some geographic research in northern India and Pakistan before being shipped onto Turkey and driven back through Europe. The Cambridge car was later lost in an accident in Turkey on another adventure, in 1957. The Oxford car meanwhile was loaned by Rovers to an ornithological expedition to Ascension Island and them found its way to St Helena in the South Atlantic, about as remote as remote can be.
Remarkably, Oxford was recovered in 2017 and shipped to the UK, to be restored to a road worthy and legal condition consistent with its original expedition configuration, but retaining as much patina as possible. And then some more inspiration, as it became a feature on the Land Rover enthusiasts’ circuit. How about, suggested TV film maker Alex Bescoby, taking this to Singapore and driving it back to London? Tim Slessor, seen above with Alex Bescoby, a travel writer and former BBC producer, was up to help, and qualified to do so. After all, he had driven it to Singapore in 1956.
In the event, Tim Slessor was unable to join the trip – at 87, his age was creeping up on him – but his grandson Nat George did join the trip in the same car his grandfather had used over 60 years before. Politics dictated a different route – the red route on the map above. The expedition, known as the Last Overland, left Singapore in late August 2019 and made it back to London for Christmas, despite this happening in Turkmenistan. The car has since been worldwide tours, meeting some of the many Land Rover fans worldwide.
But before you search further on that remarkable story (Slessor and Bescoby have both written excellent accounts of their Overlands), how about a longer look at the 1955 trip, as shown by the BBC in 2005? You might want to make a cup of proper tea as you settle back for this.
Roger, thanks for posting that. I love the photos and the original BBC documentary. The update is fascinating too for seeing how many of the original participants are or at least were still around.
It strikes me that this was at the tail end of history for that kind of expedition/adventure that the British in particular seemed to specialize in. Fantastic stuff, and they looked like they were have a real blast on the adventure. I know I would have.
Thanks for posting, and I’ll watch the videos later today. But I’m prompted to ask a question about British English usage; the pluralization of company names. I’ve often read references to people who spent their whole career “at Fords”, or as in this story, the support from “Rovers”. I know that British are more likely to use the plural verb with a singular noun, as “the Rover company are supporting this expedition”, which makes sense as the company is a collective which consists of many people. And in certain cases, I could see a possessive form with an apostrophe, as “I worked at Rover’s [factory]” with the word factory left out. But the pluralization I don’t get and was unable to find any info online. Any British grammarians who can shed a light on this?
(A long-time reader de-lurks…)
It’s definitely the possessive, not plural. Why the apostrophe’s so often missing, I’m not sure, but I suspect it comes from some firms adopting this form officially and dropping the punctuation, perhaps because it’s thought to look “untidy” or something (e.g. Boots, Woolworths, Morrisons), so it’s crept into informal usage as well.
Seconded, on all counts.
There are a lot of instances where British English omits punctuation where not only Americans but writers from most Commonwealth countries and even Ireland would use it. This particular form dates at least to the early 20th century but a lot more are so much more modern that more than once I’ve half-jokingly asked whether British punctuation went on strike in 1981 and got fired by Thatcher.
Actually, given the many and varied ways it is now executed, I suspect she privatised punctuation.
Grammatically, in English English, it should be “the Rover Company is supporting the expedition”, as the support is coming from thw singular company, though we all know actual usual usage and “correct” do diverge. Also, this usage notes that the name Land Rover (or Land-Rover) was then a product, not a company as it is now. “Rovers” as used here is an abbreviation of the “The Rover Company”
“Working at Rover’s” is, as you suggest, an abbreviation of working at Rover’s factory/shop/warehouse/whatever. Some businesses get it correct – Sainsbury’s supermarkets and trucks are signed as “Sainsbury’s” but the company is formally named “J Sainsbury plc”. “Cadbury’s” is another example; “Boots the Chemist” is arguably incorrect, as it derives from “Mr Boot is the Chemist” or from “Mr Boot has the Chemist’s Shop” Likewise, Woolworths, Morrisons but not Marks and Spencer. Catching the difference between Tescos and Tesco’s can be an art sometimes.
Another shorthand you have seen is people stating that they worked, for example, at “the Austin”, meaning the Longbridge factory of Austin Motor Co. Some of these were regional and quite precise, and implicitly understood, if never fully explained.
For several years. I worked for a business called Marshall of Cambridge, which had a an aerospace business and a motor retailing businesses. Locally, everyone referred to Marshalls (or maybe Marshall’s?), as did our customers, competitors and suppliers but the formal title was (and is) Marshall of Cambridge. Woe betide anyone answering the phone by saying “hello, Marshalls”. But, did you buy your car from Marshall, Marshalls (the plural as there were several family members involved) or from Marshall’s (Marshall’s garage)?
Apostrophe usage and discipline is a sensitive subject for some – a misplaced one make a difference. Should it have been the Rootes Group or the Rootes’ Group?
Thanks everyone for the education. Though I’m an American my dad attended Oxford and lived in England for many years before coming to the US, He was a stickler for grammar, punctuation and general usage, and detested modern American usage of the English language … though he was not a native speaker, having been born and raised in Russia. He worked for Reuters in London during WWII. Or should that be Reuter’s?
Wonderful stuff. When I heard about this trip years ago, I bought the book. A recommended read.
Interesting vids I see them using the Nairn route that was a Kiwi owned and operated outfit Beruit to Baghdad bus line via Palestine, good bit of advertising for Rover co too.
Ive got a lot of spanner time on a couple of 55 Landrovers putting a 2.6L vauxhall engine into one and canibalising the other to build the body, they will go nearly anywhere.
It seems like a lot of the Land Rover legend comes from it having just gotten in on the tail end of British imperial colonialism.
Certainly, Rover timed it right, coming at a time when the British empire and commonwealth still supported the home industry as a default.
But also, Rover did nothing many, many others, British or not, could have done.
In 1947 two Czech college friends, Jiří Hanzelka and Miroslav Zikmund, talked the Tatra company into giving them a Tatra T-87 streamlined sedan, and without any additional factory support, they drove 40,000 miles from Prague to Cape town, South Africa, then by ship to Argentina & north to the coast of Peru. They would have gone further north except for the fact no vehicles of any type had made it through the Darien gap in Panama, an area that even today, has no navigable road.*
It should be noted the TatraT-87 was a high speed 2WD luxury automobile, not a 4WD truck. Yet they managed to drive the car in areas that had never seen an automobile, and only a few 4WD trucks. Jalopnik did a nice write-up on the story in 2011: https://jalopnik.com/the-two-czechs-who-drove-across-the-world-in-a-tatra-5822618
*In January 1961 a team of 12 men from Chevrolet decided to drive a trio of red 1961 Corvair sedans from Chicago down to central America, in an attempt to cross the roadless Darien Gap. They were supported by a pair of 4X4 Suburban Carry-all wagons and a Chevy 4X4 tanker truck for fuel. The Suburbans and tanker never made it to the end. Only 2 Corvairs made it out of the jungle and into the civilized world. The 3rd Corvair was said to have run out of fuel about 1 mile from the nearest road. This 3rd Corvair was finally found a few years ago [see photo] The fate of the other 2 Corvairs is unknown, as they were left just after crossing the Colombian border, & the crew flew back to the USA.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-cinema/cc-cinema-from-here-to-there-1960-corvairs-tackle-the-inter-american-highway-and-some-wild-river-crossings-near-the-end/
The 1961 voyage is also linked in the comments to the above…